ACSEL Technology Forum

Is Avinya right for you

• You must be based in Karnataka. ACSEL states this twice, and it is the first filter. Founders elsewhere in India are not eligible.
• You must already have something working. At least an MVP, a working prototype or a demonstrable proof of concept. Idea-stage teams are not in scope.
• Your team must be two to ten people, with at least two founders working full-time on the startup for the whole programme.
• You must be incorporated in India as a registered legal entity.
• Your business has to be genuinely about AI. This is ACSEL's only field.
• Revenue is optional, so pre-revenue teams with a real product are fine.

How applications work

• Applications go through the accelerator application form on ACSEL's site. There is no other route in.
• Read the Rules and Regulations printed above the form and agree to them before you apply. They cover attendance, workspace use, intellectual property, confidentiality, evaluation and what happens if you withdraw early.
• ACSEL asks applicants to take time and answer every question in the form in full. For Cohort 3, twenty applicants are shortlisted from the answers alone, so the form is the whole first round.
• Applications for Cohort 3 opened on 7 September 2026 and close on 10 October 2026. Orientation is on 3 November 2026 and Demo Day is in February 2027.
• General questions can go to info@acsel.in, or through the contact form, which has a subject option for startup enquiries.

What reviewers look for

ACSEL says it scores startups on five pillars:

• Founding team. Grit and coachability, complementary skills with at least one technical founder and one with business acumen, and full-time commitment. ACSEL's own note is that ideas can pivot but teams cannot be replaced.
• Market opportunity. A large addressable market or a fast-growing niche, a clear reason why now is the right moment, and a model that can scale.
• Product or service innovation. Clear differentiation from incumbents, a technology or IP advantage, and traction: an MVP shipped with some user validation through beta users, sign-ups or pilots.
• Business model and revenue strategy. A clear path to revenue even if you are pre-revenue, an early read on customer acquisition cost, lifetime value and margins, and a repeatable sales cycle.
• Impact potential. Optional but valued: long-term impact on people and the planet, founders from underrepresented backgrounds or inclusive teams, and a problem worth solving.

Things worth knowing before you commit

• Money is released against milestones, subject to due diligence and progress reports, not paid up front.
• Intellectual property stays with you. Anything you create during the cohort remains your startup's property, though work built on ACSEL's datasets or infrastructure has to be disclosed.
• Attendance matters. At least one core team member has to be present at every mandatory session, including mentorships, reviews and Demo Day, and unexplained absence can affect your funding and eligibility.
• Co-working space is optional and allocated by availability, so do not plan on it.
• Leaving early costs you follow-on support and alumni privileges, and unused funds have to be returned.
• ACSEL's stated equity position is not consistent. The Avinya page describes flexible arrangements that can be equity or non-equity, while the application rules list being open to an equity model as an eligibility criterion and call the money a grant or an equity-linked instrument. Ask ACSEL to put the terms for your cohort in writing before you sign.

ACSEL Technology Forum is an AI organisation in Bengaluru, set up as a Section 8 company under the aegis of the IIT Alumni Centre, Bengaluru (IITACB) and supported by the Government of Karnataka. It runs the Avinya accelerator for early-stage AI startups, alongside research, conferences and community work on responsible AI. It sits on the second floor of the IIT Alumni Centre Bengaluru campus in Bommasandra Industrial Area.

ACSEL describes itself as a hub for responsible AI innovation, working across startups, research and collaboration between industry, academia and government. In its own press material it calls itself an AI Centre of Excellence under IITACB. Artificial intelligence is the only field it works in, and the human-centric, responsible side of AI is the thread running through all of its work.

How programmes work

The one programme a founder can apply to is Avinya, ACSEL's accelerator. The name comes from the Sanskrit word for innovation. It is a structured programme of sixteen weeks, described elsewhere on the site as four months, and it takes ten startups per batch.

Avinya is built in two phases. In the first, every startup in the cohort receives seed investment. In the second, ACSEL makes personalised introductions to investors matched to the startup's stage and industry, and can invest further in the best performers from the cohort. The programme ends in a Demo Day where startups pitch to a curated audience of investors and partners. ACSEL's rules describe the initial money as a grant or an equity-linked instrument, released against milestones and subject to due diligence and progress reports.

The teaching side runs on mentorship pods, where each startup gets dedicated mentors drawn from IIT alumni, entrepreneurs, domain experts and strategists. There are regular one-on-one strategy sessions to track progress, peer circles across the cohort, and expert workshops on fundraising, scaling and product development. Startups pick their own industry learning track, with pathways in FinTech, HealthTech and Climate Tech. A resource toolkit covers legal, financial and marketing support. ACSEL also gives cohort startups curated datasets to work with, and says it runs global exchange opportunities through partnerships with international accelerators.

Founders who finish join the ACSEL Alumni Network, which gets access to events, investors and resources. Alumni are expected to mentor later cohorts.

Applications for Cohort 3 opened on 7 September 2026 and close on 10 October 2026, with orientation of the cohort on 3 November 2026 and Demo Day in February 2027. Twenty applicants will be shortlisted from the forms.

Outside the accelerator, ACSEL runs events and publishing rather than programmes. Its first International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, "Reimagining AI", ran over two days on 22 and 23 January 2026 at the IIT Alumni Centre, with tracks on healthcare AI, responsible AI, climate AI and the road ahead. In August 2026 it co-hosted Datathon 2026 with Akshara Foundation, a two-day challenge on school learning-outcome data for Grades 4, 5 and 6, open to students, data scientists, education researchers, EdTech professionals and government fellows. Its Problem Solver's Corner is a Responsible AI blog series on real-world failures of automated decision-making, from credit scoring to hospital triage. Its Community Driver initiative is a partnership with AIPod, a founder-led investor syndicate and AI community, aimed at helping solo founders and lean teams reach investor readiness.

Who can apply

Avinya is open only to startups based in Karnataka. ACSEL states this twice, on the Avinya page and again above the application form, so founders outside the state should not apply.

Beyond that, the startup must be a registered legal entity in India, working on something that aligns with artificial intelligence, at early stage: MVP to early revenue, pre-seed to seed. It must have at least an MVP, a working prototype or a demonstrable proof of concept. Teams are two to ten people, with at least two full-time founders, and founders must commit full-time for the length of the programme. Revenue is optional. Applicants are asked to be open to an equity model.

ACSEL also names extra filters it applies for diversity and innovation: women-led startups, startups with novel business models such as circular economy or tokenomics, climate-positive or carbon-reducing solutions, and founders from underrepresented geographies such as North Karnataka.

Facilities

ACSEL may give Avinya startups optional co-working space in Bengaluru, allocated by availability, to be used only for work connected to the programme. It also offers pilot and testing facilities, meaning chances to test products in real conditions through partnerships with corporations and institutions, plus operational support with administrative tasks.

Scale

ACSEL publishes no cumulative count of startups supported. Its Avinya page lists seven named startups as Cohort 2 shortlisted companies, working in health tech, security and compliance, enterprise data security, insurance, wearables, diagnostics and HR tech. An earlier Cohort 1 winners block names founders but not companies. Treat the cohort size of ten per batch as the programme's design, not a delivered total.

Who runs it

ACSEL's board of directors is chaired from IITACB: Prof. Ashok Misra, President of IITACB and a director of ACSEL, and Ashok Kamath, Secretary of IITACB. It also includes Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti of IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Subashis Chaudhuri of IIT Bombay, Dr. Dhananjaya Dendukuri of Achira Labs, Rajiv Kuchhal of Exfinity Venture Partners and Dr. Arvind Ajoy of IIT Palakkad. A group of IITACB members support the work in their own time, including Dr. Siddhartha Das of Venture East, Subrata Mandal of iFIX Tech Global and Ramjee Ganti of FiddlerAI. The advisory board includes Dr. N. Manjula IAS, Secretary IT/BT, Government of Karnataka. Day to day, the core operating team is Suman Dash as Chief Operating Officer, Dr Praseeda K. as Research and Data Innovation Lead, and Shruti Musale as Programme Manager.

ACSEL advertises open roles in Bengaluru on its Join Us page, and hosts workshops, webinars, podcasts and community sessions through its events page.

Location

ACSEL Technology Forum is on the 2nd floor of the IIT Alumni Centre Bengaluru, 60 KIADB, Bommasandra Industrial Area, Bommasandra, Karnataka 560099. General enquiries go to info@acsel.in; the site publishes no phone number.